


The Time(s) The Sheriff Walked In On...

by Nevcolleil



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Bondage, M/M, Pretend Relationship, one creepy mask, that isn't very pretend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 16:02:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6015519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/pseuds/Nevcolleil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with an accident. A <i>supposed</i> accident. Stiles isn't ruling out some dastardly plot, no matter how often Theo rolls his eyes and says, "Stiles, if I were trying to infiltrate your pack... why would I want your father to think I'm coercing you into kinky bondage scenarios." For the prompt: The Sheriff walks in on Stiles helping Theo out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Time(s) The Sheriff Walked In On...

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw this prompt, I could only think of the scene where the Sheriff witnessed a similar scenario with Malia. All this craziness spawned from there. As per the prompt, the Sheriff doesn't know about the supernatural or Theo being a bad guy. (Largely because, in this, he has somewhat begun to redeem himself. Which helps Stiles behave himself not a bit.)

It started with an accident.

A _supposed_ accident.

For all Stiles knows, this is all part of some weirdly indirect and structurally complex scheme to take down Stiles’s entire pack... Again.

Even if Theo only rolls his eyes whenever Stiles says as much, lips carefully _not_ curling at either corner. (Like Theo’s trying to hide feeling _fond_ about Stiles’s ceaseless suspicion, for fuck’s sake.)

“If I was trying to ‘infiltrate your pack’, Stiles,” Theo says often, with air quotes and everything (the bastard), “Why would I want your father to believe I’m coercing his son into kinky bondage scenarios?”

He says it so casually, too. At normal volume, leaning next to Stiles’s locker in the hall or changing near Stiles’s locker in the gym... or standing next to Stiles’s jeep in the school parking lot.

One day maybe it’ll stop making Stiles burn bright red, all the way down from his scalp to his collarbone.

Then he can stop lashing out whenever Theo does it, amusing Theo no end - according to the little twinkle in the chimera’s eyes - no matter how threatening or sarcastic or just plain mean Stiles tends to get when he’s lashing out.

The closest Stiles has come to curbing his reaction, so far, is channeling it into a surly murmur of general disdain.

“I should have just let you eat someone,” Stiles says as he shoves notebooks into his backpack and ignores Theo’s twinkling eyes, the lines of him, all relaxed at the other side of Stiles’s locker, sculpted arms crossed over his ridiculous chest.

“I thought you said I’d have eaten you first,” Theo reminds him, looking much too smug about everything. Stiles doesn’t slam his locker when he shuts it - keeps his glare pointed and as heated and full of dark promise as ever, but refuses to comment as he walks away. Still, Theo only smirks as he falls into step next to Stiles. He raises his eyebrows and tilts his head as if he’s being playful - as if _they’re_ being playful - and says, “This mean you _finally_ get that I’m not just looking for an excuse to kill you?”

Stiles can’t scoff hard enough at the thought. Really. He’s FULL of scoffing, but Theo moves quickly to step in front of him - and Stiles is skidding to a halt, catching himself from toppling into Theo. Any sound of skepticism or accusation he might have made becomes a sharp inhalation of breath as Stiles prepares to ask Theo just what the hell he thinks he’s doing now - and then Theo leans forward, close enough that, in another life, they might be about to kiss.

Stiles’s breath freezes in his throat.

“Or have you decided being eaten might not be so bad, after all?” Theo purrs. (He _purrs_.)

The suggestion in his eyes, and his smirk - the _smell_ of him, the only werewolf Stiles’s ever met who didn’t mind smelling like something manufactured (if manufactured _well_ , and worth more probably than all the gas Roscoe can guzzle in a week) keep the innuendo from feeling cheesy.

But honestly, Stiles tries his hardest no to think about how it makes him feel when Theo messes with him this way - a ‘could be considered sexy’ kind of play, instead of the ‘with your food’ kind, like he’s used to.

Especially when they’re on a clock - because Stiles’s _dad_ is waiting to see _both of them_ at dinner.

And thankfully, _that_ reminder does more to affect Stiles’s equilibrium than some fancy cologne ever could.

His eyes narrow and he doesn’t have to try to sound strained when he says, flatly, “That was legitimately awful.”

Stiles steps around Theo and pointedly ignores how entirely the chimera’s smirk _doesn’t_ fade.  
　  
　  
　  
The accident - or “The Time I Walked In On... You Know”, as Stiles’s dad insists on calling it - isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to him.

Stiles spent half a year losing his mind after voluntarily drowning, one time. Then he spent a couple of months possessed by an evil fox spirit. The first time he killed someone was pretty fucking awful - Stiles’s isn’t honestly sure he’s even over that completely. And he’s buried a parent; he nearly had to bury a second. Plus, pretty much any bad thing that’s ever happened to Scott has felt like it happened to Stiles personally.

Having his father walk in on him chaining Theo Raeken to his bed shouldn’t even register on the scale of How Badly Does This Make Stiles’s Life Suck.

Except that, since his father’s short coma, the sheriff hasn’t remembered anything about the supernatural... and until he’s fully recovered from the “animal attack” that nearly killed him, Melissa doesn’t recommend that they try and jog his repressed memories. So there’s no way for Stiles to explain that what his dad saw _wasn’t_ him and his secret boyfriend exploring kinky sex when the sheriff was supposed to be at the station until late.

Hence the mandatory _weekly _dinners.__

__Sometimes Stiles wonders if the drowning was all that much worse._ _

__“Thank you, Sheriff,” Theo says politely as he accepts the dish Stiles’s dad has handed him._ _

__“You’re welcome, Theo,” that gets him from the sheriff. “But remember what I told you. It’s John when you’re a guest in my home.”_ _

__He says it like it’s the direct order that it is, and Stiles swallows a noise of distress along with his forkful of mashed potatoes._ _

__Because his dad couldn’t take the old-fashioned, overbearing “not in my house” approach to finding out his son is apparently: 1) gay; 2) recently sexually active; and 3) a perverted little shit. Of course not - Stiles’s dad is way too awesome for that._ _

__But because he had instead given Stiles enough shocked but compassionate silence to hang himself with, and Stiles had freaked out and argued that he couldn’t possibly be having sex with Theo because ‘ _EW_ ’. And ‘ _THEO IS EVIL!_ ’ And also ‘ _I’M PROBABLY NOT EVEN GAY_ ’... The resulting conversation had led the sheriff to the decision that Stiles was having an identity crisis only careful observation and overwhelming support would pull him through._ _

__He refused to let Stiles treat his _boyfriend_ like a dirty secret.(“That boy let you cuff him to your headboard, Stiles,” the sheriff said, looking at Stiles with so much wounded disappointment when Stiles insisted that he and Theo weren’t even friends... That Stiles felt genuinely shamed, even though he was completely innocent of the things his dad’s sad eyes accused him of doing. “Then he listened to you say a lot of really terrible things just to cover up the reason you had him there. And he _didn’t_ run out of here like a bat out of hell as soon as he could. You tellin’ me all that means nothing to you?”)_ _

___(Stiles didn’t tell him that.)_  
　  
　  
　  
At first, the whole thing was mortifying... but it didn’t seem particularly dangerous. 

__One enforced conversation became an enforced meal became their weekly arrangement, but each of those were easy enough to get through if Stiles bit his tongue hard enough and imagined avenging himself on the smirky, smug chimera sitting across the table from him vividly enough._ _

__After the first dinner, Stiles’s dad watched - while pretending _not_ to watch - Stiles and Theo awkwardly pretend to say goodnight as 'boyfriends.’_ _

__Or- Stiles awkwardly pretended. Theo had the goddamned time of his life kissing Stiles softly on the cheek and saying, loudly enough for the sheriff to hear but low enough that the words tickled pleasantly against Stiles’s ear as he pulled away, “See you at school, babe.”_ _

__But as the dinners continued..._ _

__And Stiles saw stilted small talk become actual discussions he eventually found himself joining in on..._ _

__And Stiles got to hear his dad laugh at some bullshit story Theo was telling him (Stiles hadn’t even been listening, having decided pre-emptively that it was bullshit) - _laugh_ , not just chuckle, for the first time since the attack..._ _

__And Stiles got the rare privilege of seeing Theo _snort sweet tea out his nose_ because of something Stiles and his dad had joked about together that had surprised him... (Theo had threatened Stiles bodily afterwards not to tell anyone about it. Stiles had politely refrained from commenting on how hollow the threat had sounded; how careful Theo had been as he’d “slammed” Stiles against the side of his house after they’d stepped out onto the porch. Theo had kindly ignored how Stiles’s heart rate had spiked as Theo had loomed over him.)_ _

__Well._ _

__That’s when Stiles started suspecting foul play. Some scheme - some dastardly plan._ _

__Because if he didn’t know better..._ _

__He would almost think... ( _almost_ be sure) Theo is enjoying their charade._ _

__Enjoying the nights Stiles’s dad invites him to stay _after_ dinner, to watch a game. The weekends he spends helping Stiles clean gutters and paint shutters while the sheriff supervises._ _

__Stiles could almost convince himself (if he felt like living reckless)(...more reckless than usual, anyway) that Theo even likes their “dates.” Which, initially, had been the sheriff’s way of giving them “alone time” without actually leaving them alone to engage in more ‘risky sexual behavior you boys aren’t actually ready for.’  
(“ _Dad_. We are absolutely-” Stiles began, that first night, intending to say, ‘-not going to ‘engage in any more sexual behavior’, risky or not!’ The sheriff stared him down and said, “Stiles, you can’t even admit to being more than ‘probably not even gay.’ You’re not ready. Trust me.”)_ _

__They’ve gone to movies together, with the sheriff sitting in the back row of the theater. Since the first time the sheriff questioned Theo over dinner about missing the last lacrosse match he’d been able to attend, Theo’s been in the stands for every one. Whenever the sheriff can sit with him, he takes Stiles and Theo out to eat or bowling or to an arcade afterwards... and makes himself scarce somewhere in the building while Stiles and Theo try not to call attention to themselves._ _

__(Theo _commanded_ the members of his pack to stay away from them on “family date nights”, but Stiles’s pack considers it their favorite spectator sport.)_ _

__And if Stiles thinks too long and hard about whether or not Theo might _actually_ like all of it... might actually like _him_. Then Stiles starts to think about whether or not _he_ -_ _

__Well._ _

___Yeah. Stiles tries not to think about that either._  
　  
　  
　  
To be accurate, it actually started with those claws. Those _fucking_ claws Theo almost killed Malia to get his hands on. The claws that almost killed _Theo_ , but did - in the end - allow him to help Scott kill the Beast, saving them all. 

__“Everything’s different since I had their power inside me,” Theo said when he asked for Stiles’s help. “ _I’m_ different.”_ _

__“Nope,” Stiles said without even looking up from the textbooks spread in front of him. “Stiiiill an evil psycho.”_ _

__He didn’t really think as he said it. Didn’t suppose he had to. Some of the members of their respective packs were willing to let everything that had happened _before_ they’d worked together to take down the Beast be water under the bridge... But Stiles wasn’t. Stiles _couldn’t_ , he was sure._ _

__He’d let Theo cover up a murder for him. He’d let Theo in... just a little. Just enough that Theo was the first person Stiles called the night Jordan went on a rampage and Stiles’s dad was attacked. Stiles hadn’t even thought of calling Scott. Not that he would have reached him..._ _

__Because Theo had killed Scott._ _

__Then Theo planted a claw directly in the center of the page Stiles’s was pretending to still be reading. It sunk in like a spoon into butter._ _

__Stiles looked up and went absolutely breath-taken and still to see Theo’s eyes burning bright gold. In the middle of the library. In the daytime._ _

__“An evil psycho who obviously can’t control himself on a full moon like he used to,” Theo said without bothering to defend himself, as he always - _still_ \- does.  
There was the slightest quaver in his voice - the slightest taint of shame, of pleading. His face was stone cold, all of his cocky smirks and sneaky grins gone like they’d never been. But his eyes looked scared. Stiles still can’t say what he means when he thinks that, but he does think it. Theo was scared, and he was looking to Stiles to fix it._ _

__It occurred to Stiles in that moment that he should probably worry about what Theo would do if Stiles declined to try._ _

__But honestly, when he said, “Dude... Here? _Now_? Seriously? Reign it in,” Stiles wasn’t thinking about anything except who might see._ _

__Theo closed his eyes, breathed, and retracted that single claw - pulling his hands back and tucking them beneath the table, curled into fists. When he opened his eyes they were blue again and Stiles stopped not breathing._ _

__“I’m _trying_. And the moon isn’t even all the way full yet. What happens when it is?”_ _

__“For fuck’s- Are you shitting me? You get your pack to lock your lying, chimera ass-”_ _

__“None of them could take me if I tried to fight it,” Theo said, not even bragging as he did._ _

__In fact, just the opposite._ _

__One of the many things Stiles doesn’t let himself think about often is that last battle against the Beast... and how Theo’s pack had looked at the end of it._ _

__Theo, half dead, slumped in front of Josh’s and Tracey’s nearly broken bodies, where he’d been crouched protectively since the Beast had weakened enough that he could leave it to Scott to deal with. The Doctors were dividing their attention equally between the members of both packs who weren’ unconscious or also helping battle the Beast._ _

__Corey had caught Theo as he slumped sideways, before he could hit the ground, blank eyes dully glowing the sickly blue of the claws as Hayden sobbed and shouted, trying to get Theo to respond._ _

__Evil _assholes_ , all of them - maybe. But evil assholes with a _code_ , apparently. Who really do care about each other, like pack mates._ _

__“What- And I can?” Stiles snapped, shaking himself out of the memory._ _

__Theo looked so certain. That is always the surest way to mess with Stiles’s head, even when Stiles knows it._ _

__“I know you helped Scott... and Malia. And Liam. Obviously, you know how to hold your own,” Theo reasoned._ _

__Just because he _could_ , Stiles reasoned right back, didn’t mean he enjoyed playing potential werepuppy chow to moon-drunk weres - or that he was willing to try the Occasionally Murderous!Chimera edition._ _

__Theo didn’t take Stiles’s indirect ‘no’ seriously and showed up at Stiles’s front door that night, to try out the restraints he needed._ _

___Stiles didn’t turn him away._  
　  
　  
　  
The cuffs Theo brought with him were thick and heavily padded - made of smooth but stiff leather stitched around sturdy steel buckles, attached to thick but short chains. 

__They looked and smelled like new, but as Theo dropped them on top of Stiles’s unmade bed (so sue him - it was the full moon and all his friends are supernatural creatures; he wasn’t expecting voluntary company) Stiles couldn’t help but think of the worn cuffs he’d used to help Malia through her first full moon as a human. He wondered if his father had repressed the memory of walking in on his son essentially preparing to chain a woman to his bed the way he’d repressed so much else._ _

__“Uh... is there something you needed? In here?” Stiles asked pointedly, turning from his desk, where he’d gone to grab a jar of mountain ash. Chimeras aren’t usually affected by it, but in case _that_ was different now too, Stiles figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep some on hand. “Which is my bedroom... in case you hadn’t noticed.”_ _

__“No,” Theo said, so casually, it could have been his _eviller_ twin in the library earlier. “I can make myself comfortable.” And then proceeded to plop himself down _on Stiles’s bed_ , on top of Stiles’s wrecked bed sheets, arms crossed behind his head against the rumpled pile of pillows at the headboard._ _

__“Or did you mean with putting these on?” Theo asked innocently, with one of his signature head tilts, which were anything _but_ , kicking the pile of chains and cuffs at the foot of Stiles’s bed with one socked foot. “Cause, yeah, that’s kind of why I’m here, Stiles. Remember?”_ _

__Stiles blinked. Sidelined for a full moment by the sight of Theo having taken off his shoes - to get “comfortable” - and stretched out on Stiles’s bed._ _

__“Not in my _bed_ , asshole...” Stiles said with... a pretty neutral tone of voice, actually. He was honestly too fucking struck by the surreality of everything to reach the level of angry-wary-frustrated he normally finds immediately after recognizing Theo’s presence. “You can make yourself “comfortable” on my laundry room floor.”_ _

__“I’m not sleeping in the _laundry room_ ,” Theo countered simply, with one of the glares Stiles still isn’t sure means Theo is sincerely upset or just messing with someone. He made a show out of inspecting Stiles’s headboard and said, “This looks sturdy enough to take the chains. I’ll sleep here.”_ _

__“This isn’t a _sleepover_ ,” Stiles almost _spit_. There was something very-_ _

__Theo is _always_ getting on Stiles’s last nerve... Without even doing or saying anything, truthfully. It’s like he was made specifically to get under his skin. And Stiles was wise to how often Theo took advantage of that - said did things just to rile Stiles up, to get him distracted. To make him too angry or nervous or restless to think straight._ _

__But there was something so much more provocative about Theo doing and saying things to rile Stiles while lying where Stiles had lain _half naked_ the night before... (And not _that_ kind of provocative.) (Although, at the same time-)_ _

__“Chill, Stiles,” Theo was saying, and when he smirked this time, Stiles felt as though he were just about to snap. “I promise I won’t make you cuddle.”_ _

__“You know what-” Stiles remembers saying - but not much past that besides his own occasional grumble, curse, and “I’ll show you _cuddle_...” before he had Theo’s cuffs secured to the sturdiest part of Stiles’s headboard - the base, where the headboard connects with the bed frame._ _

__As a precautionary measure, the placement was actually pretty genius. With most of the chains’ length secured behind and beneath Theo’s center of gravity, and Theo’s arms crooked awkwardly behind his back to accommodate, there’s no way Theo could get the leverage to rip free without Stiles knowing soon enough to go for the suped up tazer he’s kept in his closet since prom._ _

__As a thing that Stiles could do without coming into close, _physical_ contact with Theo... it’s an absolute failure._ _

__The cuffs themselves went onto the base of the headboard while Theo kept out of the way, but to get him into the cuffs, Stiles eventually had to straddle the chimera’s legs (his _legs_ , Stiles insisted in his head - because admitting to himself that he had to straddle Theo Raeken’s thighs, even as he did it, seemed like too much.)_ _

__And even then, Stiles ended up with much more of himself pressed against Theo than would be wise if the moon was at full power._ _

__“Hmm. Maybe we should renegotiate the cuddling,” Theo said just as Stiles finally had the last buckle almost clasped._ _

__Stiles could feel Theo’s chest rise and fall as he spoke. Stiles’s fingers fumbled._ _

__Theo’s face was turned much further towards Stiles’s than it had been only a moment before (damned werewolf reflexes.)_ _

__“Try and bite me, and I’ll fry your ass,” Stiles reminded him, wishing he didn’t sound as thrown off as he suddenly felt._ _

__Or even that he felt that way for the reason he _should_ , close enough to a crazy chimera to literally breathe the same breath._ _

__“Mm. Didn’t know you were into that,” Theo said, in his usual tone of ‘cocky little shit.’_ _

__And of course that’s when Stiles’s dad walked in._ _

__Stiles took one look at his face and realized, yeah. He’d totally repressed any memory of catching Stiles in as comprising a position as this one before._ _

___No one looked _that__ horrified, twice, about the exact same thing.  
　  
　  
　  
The important thing, Stiles tells himself, when the next full moon rolls around, is that they’ve proven Theo _can_ still control himself when the urge to shift gets strong, regardless of whatever the claws did to him before Deaton sawed them back off. 

__He just needs something to scatter his focus, sort of like the reverse to what a new were generally needs on a full moon - an anchor to focus on exclusively.  
Tensions were high enough, the night Stiles’s dad walked in on them, to do the trick, although Stiles spent that whole, agonizing conversation with his dad edging towards his closet._ _

__When the pull of the full moon finally kicked in, Stiles talked his dad into making Jordan the (unofficial) deputy in charge of regularly checking in on Stiles while his dad was back at the station. Both so no other deputy would stop by and see something they shouldn’t, and because by the time Theo showed up at his door that night, the reason he’d sought out Stiles in the first place had become much more obvious._ _

__Theo was breathing in deep, almost huffs - a low level growl constantly stirring at the back of his throat like a steady hum. His eyes glinted when Stiles hesitated letting him through the door._ _

__“You really want me out here like _this_?” he asked, holding up two hands tipped by thinner, sharper claws than the average werewolf’s (though thicker and more curved than a coyote’s.)_ _

__“You think I want you in _here_ like this?” Stiles shot back. “Don’t growl at me! I’m just saying. But you’re _definitely_ going in the laundry room this time,” he added, pointing. “I don’t wanna know what my dad would say if you wrecked my bed _now_.”_ _

__Theo ended up wrecking the laundry room instead - ripping the bolsters Stiles had put up with a power drill the day before right out of the wall._ _

__Luckily, Stiles had his handy tazer ready, not that he needed to use it. Jordan had just dropped in, and between his semi-controlled display of death hound-ness and Stiles’s threats to zap both of them, they managed to distract Theo well enough to keep him from wrecking anything else._ _

___Not_ so luckily, Theo - apparently - takes this to mean that choosing Casa del Stilinski as his full moon retreat was some kind of success._ _

__“I’ve thought about that,” Theo says when Stiles mentions all the attempted biting that took place during his ‘successful’ attempt at handling Theo. “It won’t be a problem. Especially not if you actually _do_ something this time, _before_ I’m ready to rip my chains off. If I thought slapping cuffs on me and walking away would do the trick, I could get anyone in my pack to do it.”_ _

__“Why can’t you get your pack to do it anyways?” Stiles asks. “Now that we know _how_ to-”_ _

__Theo doesn’t even let Stiles finish suggesting an alternative._ _

__Stiles blames _everything_ for the fact that he can’t get mad about it. He blames the claws, and the night his dad thought he’d caught them having kinky sex, and his dad, and _Theo_ , most of all, for not hearing Stiles’s dad coming..._ _

__“Would it really be that bad if they saw you as something other than their big scary alpha every once in a while?” Stiles said, a lot more gently than he could have once imagined himself saying anything to the chimera._ _

__Before all of this, he probably would have mocked Theo’s determination to be the strongest ‘alpha’ possible for his pack - the air quotes around the word ‘alpha’ emphatically pronounced._ _

__Now he just stares at Theo as Theo stares anywhere but at him; for once, either unable to school any incriminating evidence of actual human emotion off of his face - or not bothering to try._ _

__“Chimeras don’t feel the moon as strongly as born or even bitten weres do,” Theo reveals - the thought of what Theo could contribute to the Bestiary if they’re really doing this now, telling one another stuff like this, distracting Stiles’s attention for a moment. “That’s why I never had any trouble- This isn’t something they’re ever going to have a problem with.”_ _

__“So of course they can’t know that you do,” Stiles says, not even meaning it as a criticism._ _

__Of course Theo has to be that little bit better, stronger, more in control than every other member of his pack, as their alpha. Being stronger and having saved them from being just another bunch of bodies left to rot beside the Nemeton are his only real claims to alphadom. Or they were._ _

__Theo’s eyes still glow gold, even after everything he went through with those damned claws, but Stiles wonders if anyone in Theo’s pack actually cares - besides Theo himself._ _

__Stiles just sighs._ _

__“You could tell them,” Theo says casually. Too casually, Stiles can tell, now that he knows what Theo really sounds like when he’s not conning someone into doing something for him that they’d rather not. “And I could tell your dad what we were really doing in your bedroom that night. You don’t have to keep being any part of this,” Theo continues, with a particularly smirky (and fake) smirk._ _

__‘ _And now we’re back_ ,’ Stiles thinks._ _

__Theo knows exactly why Stiles would rather pretend to be his _boyfriend_ than risk his father finding out about the supernatural world (again). If Stiles’s dad isn’t ready-_ _

__And Theo also knows how to shut down a conversation he really wants shut down._ _

__This time Stiles lets him. “Yeah? And if you fuck with my dad’s head, I can tell your pack I just _forgot_ how much electrical current a werewolf can take and still heal.”_ _

__His eyes are narrowed when he says it, but he still sees the way Theo’s shoulders relax just slightly._ _

__“Whatever makes you feel safe alone with the ‘big scary’ chimera,” Theo says without missing a beat. “What time do you want me?”_ _

___Stiles ignores that exact wording the best that he can._  
　  
　  
　  
　  
This time its Stiles’s choice to bring Theo into his bedroom. 

__And if he flushes as hard as it feels like he does when Theo raises an eyebrow at the choice, Theo doesn’t remark on it._ _

__“This way if you rip any more holes in the wall, I have a better chance of fixing them before my dad sees,” he explains while internally berating himself for feeling like he has to explain anything._ _

__Stiles has drilled the bolsters to the floor under his bed, far enough back that they can’t be seen by someone standing, but close enough to the edge that Stiles can easily lock Theo’s chains to them._ _

__“You really got a thing for putting me on the floor, don’t you, Stiles,” Theo remarks but Stiles really isn’t in the mood - back in his bedroom with Theo for the first time since The Incident - for any more banter._ _

__“I’ve got a thing for keeping my bed in one piece,” he says._ _

__“Well, that’s no fun,” says Theo as he sits down beside the bed, leaning his head and shoulders back against the mattress and stretching his legs out in front of him.  
This time, there’s no straddling involved in getting Theo’s cuffs on him._ _

__There is, however, the very real concern that maybe they waited too long to start._ _

__Theo’s eyes are already much lighter by the time Stiles is fastening the last buckle on the first cuff, that hum Stiles has apparently committed to memory a quiet background to Theo’s subtly shifted breathing._ _

__“Hold on just a little longer... Only one cuff to go,” Stiles says, noticeably aware of the tazer cord looped around his right wrist suddenly._ _

__There’s one cuff and one other thing to go, actually, but Stiles doesn’t like Theo’s ‘solution’ for the biting problem he’d mentioned any more as he lifts the mask out of the gym bag Theo brought with him than he did when Theo first showed it to him._ _

__“Remind me again how you dressing up as Hannibal Lecter is supposed to help anything,” Stiles says, feeling a sickly swoop in his stomach as he looks at the stiff leather contraption in his hands._ _

__It’s the creepiest thing Stiles has ever had in his bedroom, and there is currently an undead science experiment chained to the floor under his bed. The fact that he thinks this fondly ( _reluctantly_ so, but fondly all the same; he can’t really deny it any longer) really doesn’t help anything either._ _

__The mask looks like something Theo could have stolen out of Eichen House. A combination of thick, dark leather and brushed metal, it could completely cover the lower half of Theo’s face and buckle behind his head. Where Theo’s mouth would be, there was just a small metal grate. Inside the mask, over the grate, there was a thick leather strap for Theo to presumably bite down on._ _

__Stiles doesn’t want to put it on Theo. And he _does_. Because it makes sense - it will definitely keep Theo from biting Stiles. It’ll probably muffle most of the growls and howls that Mrs. Thomlinson next door complained about after the last full moon._ _

__But._ _

___Damn it_ , Stiles _is_ a perverted little shit... Who is _totally_ ready for some 'risky sexual behavior’ - like, 85 percent of the time._ _

__And does. not. need. Theo _fucking_ Raeken making him think about that - and about him. About his eyes, and his _scent_ , and his smirks, and his stupid freaking redemption story. And his equally sexy and creepy bondage accouterments. For the same reasons Stiles didn’t need to know what dating Theo Raeken feels like._ _

__“Remind me how you’ve survived multiple full moons in a pack of wolves,” Theo answers in a surprisingly sharp tone._ _

__Surprising anyway until Stiles registers the slight slur of Theo’s words - as they move around the fangs elongated behind Theo’s lips. He looks and Theo is beta-shifted, eyes glowing brightly in the dimly lit bedroom._ _

__Stiles’s heart thumps for all of those wrong reasons. “What’s-”_ _

__“Werewolf,” Theo slurs again, the hum growing louder now that Stiles is watching him closely, completely still. (‘ _Prey behavior_ ’ Stiles thinks, but isn’t sure what to do about it. When he thinks about reaching for the tazer, Theo tracks the twitch of his fingers and the hum gets louder.) “And coyote,” Theo goes on, eyes burning into Stiles’s as he says, “I could tell how horny you are right now if it _wasn’t_ a full moon.”_ _

__Stiles feels himself blushing brighter than ever before, but it’s not just embarrassment pinking his skin._ _

__Like always, provocation stirs his blood - makes him want to lash out. But not with sarcasm this time. Or threats._ _

__Only, even if Theo’s ever meant the low level flirting and hardcore eye fucking he’s been initiating with Stiles since long before circumstances convinced Stiles’s dad that they’re together-_ _

__“And as happy as I’d be about that, normally,” Theo’s saying, as if he read Stiles’s mind, “I don’t think now is the time you want me to show you _how _happy.”  
Stiles thinks that’s a pretty safe thing to say.___ _

____Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Theo’s body got the message. Theo holds himself absolutely still as Stiles quickly gets the mask on him, deciding to give Theo’s quivering fangs priority over the claws he’s sunk through Stiles’s carpet. ( _Through_. Being a chimera’s full moon buddy is costing Stiles seriously in the home repair department.)_ _ _ _

____But as soon as the mask is in place and secure, Theo’s free arm snaps around Stiles’s waist, and with a snarl Theo sinks his muzzled face into the side of Stiles’s neck.  
Stiles basically falls into Theo’s lap, heart pounding and fumbling for the tazer._ _ _ _

____But those claws aren’t sinking through _Stiles_. And when Stiles focuses past the rushing of his own blood, he hears the muffled words Theo’s saying.  
“DON’T GO. I’ll let you finish chaining me, but please don’t go. Distract me, you have to distract me...”_ _ _ _

____Stiles makes an instantaneous, probably _idiotic_ decision, and instead of tazing his way free from Theo-_ _ _ _

____“I don’t think this is the kind of distraction you’ve been asking for,” he says._ _ _ _

____Except that the little jerks of Theo’s hips against Stiles’s thigh say maybe he _has_. In either case, the majority of Theo’s body is asking for it now._ _ _ _

____With a rumble in his chest much deeper than any sound that’s come out of Theo so far, he raises his head enough to look Stiles in the eye and Stiles thinks maybe his pounding heart has stopped._ _ _ _

____He can’t see Theo’s mouth to be sure, but beneath the slur and the muffle of the mask, Stiles swears he hears the same cocky lilt that always accompanies Theo’s most devilish smirk._ _ _ _

____“Are you joking?” Theo all but pants, jerking more purposefully. “I asked you to chain me to _the bed_ , Stiles. I’m not a fucking flower... I could have hung out on the floor.”_ _ _ _

____Later, Stiles will wonder if maybe that’s Theo’s confession that he _has_ been scheming against Stiles all along._ _ _ _

____At the moment, he’s just glad for the affirmation that the throbbing erection in his jeans isn’t as ill-timed as it might have been._ _ _ _

____“Fuck,” Stiles breathes._ _ _ _

____And when Theo makes a sound partway between a chuckle and a moan, he knows Theo is grinning._ _ _ _

____“Put the other cuff on and see what you can do.”_ _ _ _

_______(As it turns out.. they can do just enough.)_  
　  
　  
　  
Afterward, Stiles has never been more thankful that he thought to ask Jordan to keep his dad occupied at the station tonight - and not in danger of coming home earlier than expected. 

____He takes in the sight still stretched out beneath him as he learns how to breathe evenly again and flushes once more at what he’s seeing - at the thought of what he must look like himself._ _ _ _

____He and Theo are shirtless. It felt weird at first... doing _this_ with someone he couldn’t kiss, who couldn’t kiss him. But the yet unfaded marks all along the edge of Theo’s mask - along Theo’s collar bones and even in a place or two on Theo’s pecs - prove the lack of reciprocal kissing did nothing to hold _Stiles’s_ mouth back._ _ _ _

____They’re both sweaty, Theo’s skin spit-slick along his shoulders, where Stiles would invariably press his parted lips and just moan as he got closer and closer to completion._ _ _ _

____Stiles shakily draws back from where he’s straddling Theo, shushing the chimera when he jerks inside his restraints - a visibly aggressive gesture that loses any threat it might have had coupled with the breathless little whine Stiles is sure Theo didn’t mean to let pass._ _ _ _

____“I’m not leaving, Theo,” Stiles whispers without thinking about it, pressing another kiss to Theo’s bicep, to his forehead. Stiles will have a _lot_ of thinking to catch up to... one day. But for now he murmurs, “I’m just cleaning up. It’s okay.”_ _ _ _

____He brings back a washcloth from the bathroom after wiping the come away from his own spent cock and fixing his shorts and jeans. Then he cleans Theo up too and pulls Theo’s track pants and briefs up from where they’d gotten bunched around Theo’s knees._ _ _ _

____“You totally lied about the cuddling,” Stiles says when Theo refuses to settle and quiet for the night until Stiles returns to his lap._ _ _ _

____Theo snorts behind the mask and Stiles sees his blue eyes twinkle, full of any gold and much less moon pull than they’d been even moments earlier. (‘ _Twinkle_ ,’ Stiles allows himself a moment to reflect. He should have fucking known where this was headed.)_ _ _ _

____“Blow me next time,” Theo suggests in his sexy-playful tone, “and maybe I’ll be too tired to bother.”_ _ _ _

____“If you think we’re waiting til the next full moon to do that again, I don’t know why you painted my garage last weekend,” Stiles takes a chance and says. Because it did really seem like a lot of trouble to go through just to keep Stiles from blabbing to Theo’s pack about his full moon issues._ _ _ _

____And as much as Stiles once genuinely worried Theo might one day try to “eat" him, he absolutely wants to get his hands on Theo again now - when Theo has his hands free to return the favor._ _ _ _

____Without his fangs in the way, and now that neither of their hearts is beating quite as loudly, Stiles can hear the mischief in Theo’s voice clearly, even through the mask, as he says, “Stiles... Why would I be talking about the _next_ full moon? We’re still only halfway over this one.”_ _ _ _

____(Okay, so The Second Incident is entirely Stiles’s fault.)_ _ _ _

____(But Theo didn’t exactly complain when Stiles took him seriously, even if he had been ‘just kidding.’)_ _ _ _


End file.
